Luke Rockhold to Dana White: ‘Think Before You Run Your Mouth’

UFC president Dana White, following UFC 211, talked about fighters complaining about the road to a UFC title shot. He particularly took aim at former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold, who has been very vocal about the UFC inserting former welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre into an immediate title fight with 185-pound champ Michael Bisping.

“You got Rockhold right now screaming, ‘I deserve this.’ You just got knocked out in the first round, you don’t deserve anything. You gotta come back and earn it,” White said.

Rockhold didn’t take kindly to White’s words, particularly saying that he was misrepresented by the company president.

“Dana White, I never said I deserved a title shot. I said we (middleweights) deserve clarity. We deserve something to fight for,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

“‘You have to earn your way in this company?’ Tell me how did GSP earn a middleweight title shot? Think before you run your mouth.”

@danawhite "You have to earn your way in this company"? Tell me how did GSP earn a middleweight title shot? Think before you run your mouth

The recent exchange between White and Rockhold follows the UFC’s decision to remove St-Pierre from the fight with Bisping after the returning former champion has continued to delay the time in which he is willing to return to the Octagon. St-Pierre recently delayed his return until at least November, so White said that the promotion would move ahead with Bisping putting his belt on the line against Yoel Romero at an event that is yet to be determined.

A few days ago, Rockhold had posted a video to Instagram stating that he was beginning training for a July fight with Gegard Mousasi, as long as the UFC stuck by its decision to pit Bisping against Romero.

Rockhold’s recent Twitter outburst casts a shadow over his relationship with the UFC, especially given the fact that a fight with Mousasi has yet to be confirmed by UFC officials.